If you can chang one thing in G3, what would it be

January 14th, 2007, 13:36

personally i think there are far too many chests in G3 to begin with as there are often 2 or 3 close or beside each other in the wilderness

to be honest i've come to tolerate the random chests although my one major gripe would be in the formula they use as there's only so much you can get out of the normal quarterstaff/sword/crossbow/hunting bow/bow that is given regardless of level etc

just off-hand it would be nice to see a system the amount of chests previously opened, the amount of "special chests" previously opened as well as character level (and possibly location ie myrtana, nordmar or varant) all factored into chest contents (or at least of chests requiring lockpick)

with that said if i could change one thing in G3 it would be in the treatment of the characters from the previous gothics

I agree loot isn't well designed. It doesn't feel rewarding at all to open chest number 642 and find a torch, tame animal scroll, some water, arrows and a manapotion.

Btw speaking of scrolls. i honestly feel that they are too common. Remember that there was this thing about magic runes not working anymore. Nevertheless you can still find a spell scroll around every corner. It just doesn't feel right. Those items should be more rare and valuable, thus making learning spells more meaningfull. Like the strike lightining spell that is fairly common scroll. Only a real mage should be able to cast it.

Orcs and men as tougher opponents and the beasts made weaker. If boars were so tough then all the armies of the king needed to do to defend their nation is to lure a couple of boars towards the orc army and watch them stunlock and wipe them all out. Same goes for most of the beasts.

Yeah, I've been keeping a watch on the patches. I didn't give up on the game as I do still like it. It's a shame that they didn't fix such an obvious flaw in the beta testing before release as it turned people off, but it is nice it is being addressed. The common animals are still the tougher opponents than they should be though. It was especially ridiculous when you see some famed hunter who collects wolf pelts being brought down by them time and again.

They tweaked the orcs a little too, so I can't always stunlock even an orc leader to death by mindlessly mashing the mouse button, so now shields might be more useful. It'd be better if they worked with animals though. I don't know why a shield can stop a huge length of sharp steel wielded by a brutish warrior or giant orc but not stop a two-inch wolf tooth.

It's a very different game to the other Gothic games. I'd go as far to say that it is so different that they shouldn't have called it "Gothic 3" at all, to stop people getting the wrong idea and upsetting the fans.

Just one thing. Man, that is really hard because there are at least four or five things I'd really like to see changed.

Like just a little more structure and guidance, so you don't end up standing somewhere wondering "What am I supposed to be doing?'; or having the original voices from G1 that we all know and love; more manually placed and less "random" loot, so you can't get one of the five best swords in the game in the first hour; or more loot chests in caves and dungeons instead of just laying around in the wilderness; and I really hate the way Orc's/Mercenaries, etc. just run off and disappear (sometimes with quest items) when you "free" cities.

But, if I had to choose just one thing to change, it would be how long slain monsters/animals just "lie around" after being killed. I mean, I can play for 10 hours and go back to where I was when I started playing and still have the things I killed lying around. Why?

I mean this has got to be needlessly using up processor power, or at the very least making my poor old video card tax itself drawing dozens of monsters that have been dead for days and have absolutely no reason for existing any longer. I really wonder how much of a shot in the arm the FPS would get if all dead monsters/animals disappeared after 24 or 36 "in game" hours.

A little more scene setting, dialogue and journal entries on the main quests and major side quests/items and some world setting info in books or dialogue - not heaps, but a little more direction would be helpful.

I have only just met Xardas - been playing since the game was released and I know zip about the main story. I found the fire chalises in my travels and handed them over starting that questline, not realising this would turn the orc settlements hostile once I get in range of the orc leaders.

The game needs some serious balancing too - this would take a lot of time so I'm not surprised it hasn't been done yet. I have specialised in the bow but find I far easier to beat any human or orc using my saber. Arena fighting is too easy. I find the armour and trinkets don't have a big impact on the gameplay, but I could be wrong. I'm walking around wearing the divine artifacts and this doesn't appear to have much impact on game balance.

The loot in chests could also be better balanced with some nice surprises but at least this isn't a game breaker like it is in Oblivion.

I like the general design and so far consider it a very worthy Gothic game. There is a game and expansion worth of content here and they probably would have done better to do it that way rather than add everything to the main game. Haven't experienced many bugs at all except the odd wildlife surprise as they suddenly appear from inside walls